REDDITCH residents have been having their say on the closure of Hughes Electrical in the town centre.
The store on Grove Street shut on Tuesday with no prior warning – it came as a big shock to the staff who were only told that morning.
A spokesperson for Hughes Electrical said: “Retailing in the UK is changing at an unprecedented rate, greatly accelerated by the pandemic and lockdown.
“More and more consumers are now turning to the web to make purchases – and if we are to survive as a business we must respond.
“This means taking tough decisions, one of these is the closure of our store in Redditch, regrettably resulting in nine redundancies.
“Customers who have rented equipment from the store should continue to call the same number, if they have any questions, as it will be redirected to our customer services team.”
People took to social media in their droves after the announcement.
Kath Manning said: “I was only in there last week, awful that they had no warning of this and that it is going.”
Julie Cacciottolo added: “This is an absolute nightmare. Not only do we have no longer an electrical store for white good essentials but for customers who want to properly check out kitchen/electrical appliances.
“Redditch is a shadow of it’s former self.
“How can it be said this town is thriving when major retailers are pulling out of here? The saddest thing is I don’t see things getting any better any time soon.”
However, Philip Roberts said it was no surprise that the store had closed.
“There have been loads of critical comments about the predominance of coffee shops, Turkish barbers, and nail bars.
“These outlets would not set up shop if there was no demand for their services.
“We live in a market economy, the range of shops in any town is determined by market demand and the two biggest reasons for reduced demand is the monopoly position of supermarkets, and internet shopping.
“Reduce our reliance on those, and we might see improved town centres.”
- WHAT do you think about Redditch town centre? Do you come here to shop regularly? What stores would you like to see come to the town? Email us your views to [email protected]
